Let’s set aside the choice to eat flavorless paste while living in one of the most advanced civilizations in history, with access to food from the global market. I still can’t understand how anyone chooses to eat a “food” created by a nutrition enthusiast.
Remember the movie Gattaca? I guess we’re there now.
“At some point in the not too distant future, prospective parents will have the technical ability to look at the genome of their embryos and select embryos based on the traits they see, whether those are disease traits, cosmetic traits, behavioural traits, or boy or a girl,” says Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University in California.
Do you like to read old handwritten manuscripts? Do you like to contribute to the collective knowledge of the world? Well then, Smithsonian has something for you. Their new transciption project lets volunteers signup to transcribe and review some old texts like “Observations on the Indians of the Colorado River” or the diary of Mary Henry, 1858-1863.
This seems like a really compelling project. I’m anxious to see how successful it is without some kind of gamification.
Humorous piece over at io9 about the Cassowary:
They can grow to over six and a half feet tall, weigh well over 100 pounds, and gallop around at speeds of over thirty miles per hour – an impressive biomechanical feat for a creature with legs that might best be described as “death-cudgels with knives attached.”
io9 has become one of my favorite casual reading sources. The stories are off-beat and generally well written.
From Scientific American:
They can apparently withstand all sorts of harsh conditions, like nutrient or oxygen deprivation and attack by digestive enzymes. In fact, stress may even activate these cells, which would make them excellent candidates for repairing diseased or damaged tissues.
Many possibilities for jokes here, but I will just point to the Adipose for entertainment value.
Vice has interesting look at the cause and effect of investing in the physical sciences. To be fair, it’s not obvious what is the cause and what is the effect.
Developing countries expend more resources combating disease and hunger, so investing in medical and ag research makes sense. The RCA, then, reflects that in its effort to describe a country’s current and future prosperity. It also describes the fact that rich nations, which can afford more R&D, can keep accumulating wealth faster, while poor ones grow more slowly.
Bloomberg:
The justices unanimously issued a mixed ruling on Myriad Genetics Inc. (MYGN)’s patents on genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The majority said that some parts of Myriad’s patents improperly covered natural phenomena.
I am so glad that the Supreme court made this ruling. In my opinion natural phenomena should not be proprietary. Now, if only we could fund the USPTO well enough that they could prevent this ridiculousness from happening in the first place.
Do you even know how much I love Dr. Drang? About as much as I hate tech blogs talking about science.
Side note: I wonder if it means anything that the good doctor closed comments on that post from the outset? I hope not. I love his comment threads.
Paul Bracher is a smart guy (obviously). How could this setting possibly pass a team review:
While I could see the search committee just fine, they saw me as a sad kitten. I know this because (i) I could see my feed in a small box on my screen, and (ii) the professors on the committee were looking at their screen and chuckling. What’s worse is that every time I talked, the kitten’s mouth would open and close.
I really wish Derek Lowe was a science journalist. Most science journalism is done by people with zero understanding of the underlying principles. Sure, most of the “journalists” know buzzwords but few have any experience with actual active research.
